There's nothing wrong with being a work in progress

DIY Home Hacks

Sometimes the gym is great! Go down, get a sweat on, get home and feel amazing with having been productive and proactive towards meeting your goals. Other times there is nothing more demoralising than walking through those doors and seeing big groups gathered around, either throwing weights about grunting or chatting when they should be throwing weights about grunting. So we have a DIY Fitness Hack! This isn’t going to make you the incredible hulk in 2 weeks neither do we promise this to be the next Acai berry and lose you heaps of weight. It will however keep you active and moving on a day that you might not have the motivation/energy to get down to get down to the gym.

Press ups

The good old press up many peoples nemesis! It is important to keep good form; straight back, legs shoulder width apart, keep the core engaged. If you are struggling there is no shame in dropping to your knees we all have to start somewhere! Start with 12 and to add intensity try varying width of the arm position or add a time limit to see how many you can do. Just because you’re alone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge yourself!

Plank

People look at these and think ‘yeah that looks easy’ however once the exercise starts you start shaking and sweating and looking like a drug addict going cold turkey! Probably a good one for home in that case! For those unfamiliar it is essentially the ‘press up’ position with both elbows at 90 Degrees bum and back aligned as to not arch the back. Hold this position for 30 Seconds to start with then as you get better at it progress to a 45 second, eventually getting a full minute. To add complexity and variation see above the side plank, keep hips and knees elevated off the ground keeping good strong posture throughout and hold position.

Glute Bridge

Lay on your back and knees bent and feet flat on the floor, push your hips into the air using your bum keeping you back straight and avoid arching your back. These are tough first ever time you do them but they get easier pretty quickly afterwards. I would suggest doing this continuously for 30 seconds to start with until comfortable then you can increase the timing.

Squat jumps

Does what it says on the tin, make sure you have loads of head room so you’re not smashing the lights off the ceiling! Keeping good form on the downward movement of the squat and also on the landing don’t assume the working is done on the downward movement go straight back into squat and repeat. It is meant to be a repetitive movement. Aim to do 10 of these to start with and progress as necessary.

Superman’s

So we have worked the core muscles above and now it’s time to work the lower back. Lie face down arms outstretched in front of you, then simultaneously raise your arms and legs of the ground and hold at the fullest extension for 2 seconds. Slowly lower both arms and legs and repeat for 10 reps.